Endangered crocodiles hatch at Fort Worth Zoo
The Fort Worth Zoo celebrated its first repeat breeding success with gharials this summer with the birth of two young. The Texas zoo is the only facility in North America to have produced multiple offspring of the species.
In Australia, researchers worried about the sharp decline in the population of freshwater crocodiles that eat a poisonous, invasive species of toad have developed a method that allows the reptiles to turn their stomachs.
The scientists baited the crocodiles with dead cane toads that had been drained of their poison, but added a “nausea-inducing chemical” that quickly caused the reptiles to no longer want to eat toads for dinner in the future, according to a study published in Royal Society Publishing.
The invasive toads were first brought to the continent from Hawaii in 1935 as part of a pest control strategy. This failed, but the poisonous amphibians spread throughout tropical Australia.
“It’s not pretty. They go into convulsions. And death occurs quite quickly and is probably very painful because it’s essentially a massive cardiac arrest,” Georgia Ward-Fear, a conservation scientist at Macquarie University in Sydney, told NPR about what happens to the crocodiles when they eat the toads.
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Researchers in Australia, concerned about the sharp decline in freshwater crocodiles that eat a poisonous, invasive species of toad, have developed a method that allows the reptiles to turn their stomachs. (Don Arnold/WireImage)
“Apex predators play a crucial ecological role, which is why their protection is a high priority,” the study says. “In tropical Australia, there are several populations of freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni) have plummeted by more than 70% due to the fatal ingestion of poisonous, invasive cane toads.”
In 2021, scientists left nearly 2,400 cane toad carcasses with the nauseating chemical inside in parts of northwest Australia where the crocodiles hunt. The crocodiles “quickly learned to avoid toad bait but continued to eat control bait (in the form of chickens),” the study said.
It went on to say that “repeated baiting over several years has had a sustained positive impact on crocodile survival.”
The study states that the taste aversion method “relies on the widespread ability of animals to learn to avoid foods that cause nausea when consumed.”
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Cane toads were first introduced to the continent from Hawaii in 1935 as a pest control strategy. This failed, but the poisonous amphibians spread throughout tropical Australia. (Joshua Prieto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Crocodiles with toads in their stomachs also frequently had major bleeding in the cardiovascular and digestive systems,” the study says. “Crocodiles poisoned by toads were sometimes found alive, floating on the water surface and exhibiting muscle spasms, constant underwater ‘death rolls’, bouts of extreme lethargy, paralysis of the limbs, incoordination and unresponsiveness with the mouth gaping. We were unable to save any of these animals.”
In Australia, the survival of freshwater crocodiles is at stake. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
The scientists also distributed the bait to ensure that the crocodiles did not become seriously ill if they ate too much of it.
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“It’s been a huge success,” Ward-Fear told NPR, adding that crocodile mortality rates in the region have been reduced by as much as 95%. “And now, as we speak, it’s being used by Indigenous rangers and wildlife agencies.”
